综合一区欧美国产,99国产麻豆免费精品,九九精品黄色录像,亚洲激情青青草,久久亚洲熟妇熟,中文字幕av在线播放,国产一区二区卡,九九久久国产精品,久久精品视频免费

   

WORLD / America

Shuttle launch a 'go' despite problem
(AP)
Updated: 2006-07-04 14:37

NASA signed off Monday night on a Fourth of July shuttle liftoff despite worries about a piece of foam that popped off Discovery's external fuel tank while the spacecraft sat on the launch pad.

"We're going to continue with the launch countdown," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator, at a nighttime briefing.

A graphic from NASA shows the external fuel tank, close-up of the lock speedline bracket showing an area of missing foam and a photo of the missing chunk of foam from space shuttle Discovery's external fuel tank in Cape Canaveral July 3, 2006.
A graphic from NASA shows the external fuel tank, close-up of the lock speedline bracket showing an area of missing foam and a photo of the missing chunk of foam from space shuttle Discovery's external fuel tank in Cape Canaveral July 3, 2006. [Reuters]

The decision for the 2:38 p.m. EDT Tuesday liftoff was sure to stir more debate about whether the space agency was putting its flight schedule ahead of safety even though Gerstenmaier said "there were no dissenters ... no concerns raised" at a meeting of managers.

He said the astronauts and NASA administrator Michael Griffin were in on the discussion. Griffin "didn't raise any question or comments but he listened intently," Gerstenmaier said.

The 3-inch triangular piece of foam that appeared to come from a 5-inch-long crack late Sunday or early Monday is far smaller than the foam chunk that brought down Columbia, killing seven astronauts in 2003. Gerstenmaier showed reporters the piece of foam, which looked like a wedge of toast.

"I don't think we're taking any additional risk than we did in our original assessment" in going ahead with a launch, he said.

Managers had spent most of Monday pondering the problem. NASA has spent millions of dollars trying to prevent foam from breaking off at liftoff, threatening the kind of damage it did to Columbia. Engineers were startled when it broke off Discovery during last year's mission, but it didn't harm the shuttle.

The loss of foam from that area of the tank while on the launch pad is a rare occurrence, happening only once before, Gerstenmaier said.

Some outside experts familiar with shuttle foam loss problems were concerned about plans to launch Tuesday.

Carnegie Mellon University engineering and risk analysis professor Paul Fischbeck, who had been worried earlier in the day by the falling chunk of foam, said NASA's rationale in going ahead made sense and he is slightly more comfortable with a launch try Tuesday.
Page: 12

 
 

遵化市| 沙坪坝区| 大理市| 屯门区| 体育| 巫山县| 张北县| 清水县| 常德市| 如东县| 永丰县| 宁都县| 梅州市| 利川市| 扶沟县| 莱州市| 贞丰县| 全州县| 沁阳市| 涟水县| 宜兰县| 大关县| 汝南县| 海兴县| 万源市| 农安县| 双流县| 龙海市| 治多县| 嫩江县| 恩施市| 渭源县| 丰镇市| 自贡市| 雅江县| 溆浦县| 黄浦区| 抚顺县| 策勒县| 开平市| 西藏|